“A discussion over the Squidwrench Operating Table about injecting entropy into VMs before / during their boot sequence reminded me that I wanted to try the Entropy library with my 8×8 RGBLED matrix. The original version trundled along with random numbers produced by timing Geiger counter ticks. The second version, digitizing the amplified noise from a reverse-biased PN junction, ran much faster. What’s new & different: the Entropy library measures the jitter between the ATmega328 watchdog timer’s RC oscillator and the ceramic resonator (on Pro Mini boards) driving the CPU. It cranks out four bytes of uncorrelated bits every half-second, which isn’t quite fast enough for a sparkly display, but re-seeding the Arduino PRNG whenever enough entropy arrives works well enough. One could, of course, re-seed the PRNG with Geiger bits or junction noise to the same effect. The key advantage of the Entropy library: no external hardware required. The downside: no external hardware required, so, minus those techie transistors / resistors / op amps, it will look like Just Another Arduino Project.”